Monday, 14 July 2014

I've been watching the fundraising efforts by Reproductive Justice New Brunswick. They are trying to raise $100,000 to secure the lease on the Fredericton Morgentaler Clinic, which is closing this week.

At about 8:30 this morning, the total stood at $18,400 with just 17 days left in the campaign.

By 11 a.m., the total had zoomed to more than $32,000 and as of just now (6:30 p.m.) it stands at more than $51,000.

As comments at the fundraising site and on the Globe article indicate, people across the country are shocked by the New Brunswick government's cavalier attitude towards women's rights. Canadians find it appalling that not all of us have equal access to healthcare. Some of us were under the impression that we'd fought this battle and won.

Surprise!

Donations are not the answer of course. This is merely a stop-gap.

The goal is to force the NB government to repeal its idiotic Regulation 84-20 so that women of the province can have medicare-funded, self-referred abortions like other Canadians.

UPDATE (July 15/14, 5:45 p.m.): On Twitter, I've been razzing CBC all day about this story not being newsworthy enough to cover. As the numbers zoomed up today -- from $64K at 7 a.m. this morning to $75K just after noon to over $82K now -- I kept at them. Finally, the magic number was reached. At $82K they weighed in. Maybe now that the goal of $100K looks assured, they can rest easy that they won't be accused of being anything so wildly anti Conservative Canadian as pro-healthcare for all.